postdated aug 28, I think? lin sucks.

He'd considered visiting neighboring packs as some sort of stand-in ambassador with nothing better to do, but he'd argued with himself against it. Jefferson was a lazy son of a bitch when he could be, thus the idiot wandered in and around the corner of Arachnea's Revenge he laid claim to. For whatever reason he was unshifted, limping three-legged until he grew tired, at which point he plopped beneath a tree and rolled around or something similar, doing idle things Jeffersons do when nobody else is around. That said, when he grew still, he spent another ten long, dull minutes watching a spider crawl up and down his snout aimlessly before flipping his maw and contentedly managing to swallow the damn thing. Odd, he wasn't supposed to be this bored. He was a leader, after all.

Jefferson, still and unmoving, had neared yet another casual nap when the scent and sounds of a stranger alerted his instincts. Though the cyclops had knowingly strayed from Phoenix Valley borders (and forgotten how far he'd gone), the idiot couldn't help but pay attention when the female marched past, haughty and almost intimidating in her manner. She'd gone by at a pretty decent distance; the cyclops pushed up onto his haunches and stared after her briefly before snorting and rolling his shoulders. "Smile, sunshine," he shouted after her sarcastically, detecting the scent of Dahlia on her person... and something more. His straightened his back. No, he needed to find out who she was.

Short post is short. :I

"Not quite," he shrugged after some thought, smiling casually up at her. "Arachnea's Revenge, just outside Phoenix Valley borders. That's what you're smelling." Judging by her scent and the fact that she was apparently lost, he guessed her home aloud. "Kind of far from Dahlia. What brought you out here?"

Thank you! Did I mention I suck? XD

"Geneva is my second-in-command," the brute said, immediately establishing himself as a leader in the subtlest way possible. He pushed himself to his feet and rolled his shoulders. "You're Haku's sister," he accused boldly, but a hopeful look clouded his single eye. "I'm Jefferson, but my real name is Maluki. Haku is my half-brother." Always to-the-point, Jefferson was.

No problem.

Jefferson did not take it as a personal offense, but raised a curious brow when the white-furred woman blushed madly and apologized. What was crossing her mind? Was there some pressure, some embarrassment he'd forced onto her in such news? Couldn't be. He hadn't been flustered or embarrassed when his demon-looking half-brother had dropped the bomb. The cyclops shrugged and rolled his shoulders; women were such mystifying things. "Nobody told me either, until your brother did," he said, tilting his head to the side. "I'm an amnesiac; I don't know who you two are, either. All I know is that I'm my mother's oldest child and my father was named Acid but disappeared. Apparently I hated your father, ...presumably because of you and your siblings." His expression hardened some, but it was clear that he harbored no such feelings any longer. Actually, he didn't even have a clue who Mew's father even was.

"I gathered from Haku that I met him as he was growing up, but I'm not sure about you or your sister." He shrugged, then looked around aimlessly as he searched his mind for the explanation for his disappearance from Clouded Tears that Laruku had given him a year before. Strange -- after so long since he'd spoken with Laruku that time, how little Jefferson had learned of Maluki since. "A dead man told me I lived in Clouded Tears until your litter was born... and I disappeared after I couldn't live with your father." The cyclops' eye became distanced, a typical result of his cloudy, childhood thoughts. "I guess I went looking for my father. I ended up back here by pure accident. It's been a year and a few months since I found my way back."

When it came to his mother, though, Jefferson knew nothing. "My first memory is of waking up with an eye torn out and covered in scars and blood," he said slowly. Jefferson, this Jefferson, had been born in pain and blood -- Maluki, and the madman he'd became, had been born in warmth and pleasure. "I don't remember anything from my childhood. All I know is that she is white and still alive, or at least she was when I talked to the dead man. He told me she was around here somewhere, by herself... but I haven't seen her. She'd be getting on in years by now." He paused. "I doubt she'd recognize me anymore, anyway."

Yikes...

The cyclops' tattered ears perked when her decision to leave came suddenly; Mew did not hesitate to turn and start away, dismissing him as quickly and easily as one might flick a pestering bug from their shoulder. The Patriarch quickly climbed to his feet, hissing when the extra pressure was pushed on his bad leg. She did not even offer a farewell -- and Jefferson wasn't about to settle for that. Hell, he had barely any family he knew of, even though more and more were unveiling each day. When it came to brothers and sisters, his litter was gone -- he knew that well. Melisandre was gone. His mother was gone. Laruku was gone. All he had left were his coyote-hating half-sister and the half-brother he'd heard to be a monstrosity. "I didn't ask to be this way," he barked, taking a shot in the dark. If he was wrong in his reasoning for her sudden anger, then he'd be corrected. "I didn't ask to have a coyote for a father who stole half my life away when he up and left and I couldn't find him."

He gave up, released a sigh, and settled back on his haunches. Jefferson wasn't going to play the pity party -- but for some reason, defending the coyote heritage he never asked for but was so cruelly disliked for regardless was becoming more and more common. He was sick of it. He was not born of Inferni, but because of his blood, there was a strange illusion he was. "You don't know," he mumbled beneath his breath. "You don't know the hell I've been through because of him."

This thread may be slow, but it's one of the best threads I've had in a long time.

His ears flicked back and pressed against his skull; the action was rather rare for the bold Jefferson. In his position, the Patriarch rarely had to stand down to anyone -- and those that assumed he would were met with his unyielding personality instead. To family, however, Jefferson barely knew how to act. He'd been born clueless in a spinning world dripping with blood; family had never been a presence in the life of Jefferson has it had once been of Maluki. Family had been what had driven him to and from Clouded Tears, led him away, and brought on the madness that Mew would have accused his coyote blood the culprit for. His green eye searched at her, unconsciously longing and clouded with doubt. What was going on?

He breathed. "I hate Inferni," the brute hissed beneath his throat, darkening his eye and turning it away. Iskata's disappearance, DaVinci's love life, Zana's abduction -- Jefferson had always accused all three on Inferni. Gabriel and Iskata had never gotten along, and without any other evidence, the cyclops had always been on edge when it came to the coyote clan. "I hate what they stand for, the fucking shit they do," Jefferson breathed, "but I don't hate coyotes because I can't hate my family... even if I don't know them."

I like plots! Looking forward to the PM! :3

His frown lengthened and eye darkened. There was no reason to forward the distrusting, bubbling dislike for Deuce and her tendencies onto his half-sister who was doing the same towards he. The cyclops lowered his neck some, staring up at her with the emerald of his eye piercing. He was losing his patience, especially in the face of her shout. "You hate coyotes," he growled, though it was clear he had no intentions of harming her. "You hate coyotes, and I hate racists. Anyone willing to throw away a starving, dying innocent because of their blood is no one I will respect."

But I won't hate family, his eye still silently pleaded somewhere within. After a pause, he straightened himself, sat down, and lowered his head. "You're no different than Deuce," Jefferson sighed, resigned, and finally shook his head. "Go home, Mew."